Post 9/30: My 100th Post!

I've had 4 different blogs over the years and never made it to 100 posts before. I'm sure some of you that post everyday are floored by that, but this is my very first time! To celebrate, I want to party... or, actually, talk about party planning.

A few weeks ago, I got the sweetest comment from my friend Marcia. I met her through a mutual blogger friend when we both got pregnant at the same time after infertility. She was due a week or two after me, but had her twins 2 months early, so she's got a couple of one year old's now! She's been someone that I've kept in contact with the most during this entire time, and I think we learn a lot from each other. When I got this message from her, I was truly blessed by it, and I apologize for not saying something personally before. She said,

"please don't wait for a piece of paper to start your business. people honestly don't care about those things - they care about results and if you're waiting for permission that you're enough, here it is - you are SO MUCH MORE than enough. Do your passion and God will bless your efforts."

I cannot say enough what that meant to me. What she didn't know, though, is that I had already taken some steps towards starting my business without the "piece of paper". I posted an ad on Craigslist's event section offering to do wedding and event planning. I just so happened to get a response from someone just this last week who is actually a certified wedding planner herself, and wondered if I might be interested in going into business with her. She is new to this area, and since it normally takes a team of people to coordinate an event anyways, she thought that we could use my experience to work together, giving her a hand and helping me to get my feet wet.

So, she came over Friday to meet me at my house. I had my mom come over too so that I wouldn't be meeting a stranger from Craigslist at my house alone with all of the kids. She wasn't a weirdo, fortunately, but I'm glad I had my mom there because of her party/wedding planning experience too. Plus, she was able to be an extra observer and give me her insight and advice afterwards. The lady came with her mother (who often works with her) and her son as well. We had a house full, especially when Jesse and our friend Liam both came home and were getting ready to go camping!

In short, I had mixed reactions to the experience and have some things to consider.

Pros:

• She showed me many of the supplies and curriculum she received in order to be certified. It's not the same school I plan on going to, but it helped me to find out more about that particular school.
• Working with her would allow me to get clients in a professional setting and earn some extra income through her business. (She offered to split the money evenly on any event that we coordinate together.)
• She does have the certification behind her name that could give her a leg-up over me in getting clients. 
• They were very nice and completely willing to be flexible, giving me as much responsibility and input as she has. 

Concerns (not cons yet):

• They smelled like cigarette smoke coming in. That smell tends to stick to everything and could affect the quality of products used at an event if she owned them previously, or could be a turn-off or be seen as unprofessional to potential clients. 
• Her 3-year-old son is a terror! He was horribly behaved the entire time at my house. I mean running from one end of the room to the other, telling his grandma to be quiet when she disciplined him, disobeying everyone, and even hitting Zoe in the face! I do understand that they moved really recently and she explained that a lot of his behavior is from their previous home life, but I wouldn't want him to accompany us when we are working, interfering with the business. And my other thought is that how she manages her home could be a reflection of how she manages her business.
• I don't know how professional they would come across to clients because of their speech/grammar/accents. I'm a native Texan and southern girl at heart, but their deep Arkansas accents could come across as unintelligent or unprofessional here in the northwest. 
• She seemed REALLY impressed by my portfolio of work, but had nothing to show for her own work. She only talked about one wedding (her sister's) that she's put together, and had one picture to show it (which didn't reveal anything about her work). In addition to that, she talked about her niche being the business aspect of planning and her mother being the creative one. I wonder if I would benefit her more than she would benefit me... 
• I don't know how much time I can really devote to working with her when it comes to coordinating my schedule with her's. We'll just have to see. If it was me by myself, I could do everything on my time, but when working with her, I have to balance my daycare and home life with her business and home life.
• I just simply don't know yet how well we will work together when it comes to our creativity or planning styles.
• Lastly, she talked about allowing me to design a website for both of us and even being able to change the business name if I had a better suggestion. But since my goal is still to ultimately be on my own, I wouldn't want to completely build up her business with all of my personal preferences and then leave with nothing of my own, starting from scratch again.

In the end, I said that I would love to work with her on her next client's event on a complete trial basis. We could split up the details of the wedding and see how well we work together. I won't commit to being in business with her long-term without knowing how our personalities, styles, and schedules work together. So, I'm just waiting to see what happens next. I feel positive about it helping me get into the business on a professional level, but leery of how everything will actually work out logistically. 

We'll see...

In the meanwhile, I threw the very low-key party for Jolyn last night. Josiah's first birthday is coming up in less than a month, which is going to be HUGE for my portfolio, as every detail is custom-made. And, it looks like I might be throwing an Alice in Wonderland themed Party for one of the girls at church who is turning 16 in January. I'm going to still keep putting my name out there and seeing what opportunities come my way.

Here are a few more pictures from Jolyn's party, plus a video of my singing cake plate :-)

  

(Jolyn on the left, Katelyn on the right)

  

(Melissa and Jessica)